Sunday, February 1, 2015
Three kinds of programmers...
Three kinds of programmers... I've never seen the three categories called out so specifically, but this article does a nice job of defining them:
One of the challenges I had when poking into the ClimateGate software dump was that those programs were written by computational scientists (the climatologists developing climate models). That was a challenge because the programs were not written to be maintainable or even understandable by anyone other than the author. They were also teeming with horrifying bugs, especially a tendency to fail utterly with the tiniest little issue in the inputs. That sort of program rarely emerges from a software development shop, even as a prototype. On the whole, I think the computational scientists could learn a great deal from both the other kinds of programmers.
Computer scientists, for me, are mostly a source of knowledge. Folks like Donald Knuth and James Gosling have, through their work, gave me the intellectual tools to be a better software developer. I've mooched a great deal from that group. Only rarely have I made any contribution at all to that body of knowledge – just a couple of email exchanges with real computer scientists where maybe I gave them an idea or helped them clarify a finding. One thing I know for sure: the best computer scientists are also great software developers, and have done a good deal of it...
- Computer scientist
- Computational scientist
- Software developer
One of the challenges I had when poking into the ClimateGate software dump was that those programs were written by computational scientists (the climatologists developing climate models). That was a challenge because the programs were not written to be maintainable or even understandable by anyone other than the author. They were also teeming with horrifying bugs, especially a tendency to fail utterly with the tiniest little issue in the inputs. That sort of program rarely emerges from a software development shop, even as a prototype. On the whole, I think the computational scientists could learn a great deal from both the other kinds of programmers.
Computer scientists, for me, are mostly a source of knowledge. Folks like Donald Knuth and James Gosling have, through their work, gave me the intellectual tools to be a better software developer. I've mooched a great deal from that group. Only rarely have I made any contribution at all to that body of knowledge – just a couple of email exchanges with real computer scientists where maybe I gave them an idea or helped them clarify a finding. One thing I know for sure: the best computer scientists are also great software developers, and have done a good deal of it...
The end times are nigh, part 12,983...
The end times are nigh, part 12,983... In New York City, expectant mothers fill out a form for requesting a birth certificate. On that form is the following question:
I'm pretty sure I won't live long enough to see such a thing in rural Cache County, Utah. I certainly hope not...
Do you identify as male or female?Seriously.
I'm pretty sure I won't live long enough to see such a thing in rural Cache County, Utah. I certainly hope not...
An unusual afternoon yesterday...
An unusual afternoon yesterday... When we bought our new home, it came with a greenhouse, the kind made with pipe “hoops” supporting a plastic covering. It hadn't been used for several years – its heater was disconnected, the water was disconnected, and it had been used as a junk repository for a while. The biggest challenge with the greenhouse, though, was its placement: for some reason the previous owner had oriented it with the long axis north-south, in a spot with big evergreen trees to its west and southwest, and a larger building to its east. Consequently, in the winter it got about 30 minutes of sunshine a day. Not so good :)
Last year we decided that we'd like to have a greenhouse ourselves – but we wanted one made of glass, not plastic. And we wanted it placed in a slightly more sensible location. We have the perfect spot for a greenhouse, on the south side of the acre or so that we're going to put a garden. That spot has a 12 acre field to the south of it, so the greenhouse will get plenty of sunshine in the winter, when it needs it. That's a project for later this year, or (more likely) next year.
Meanwhile, we had this plastic greenhouse that we wanted to get rid of. We've been trying to find someone who could make good use of it, asking around the network of people we know here. Yesterday those efforts finally paid off when the co-worker (Chris W.) of the son of fellow who built our barn called me out of the blue and said “I’ll take it!” She, her husband Gary, and their daughter Hailey showed up just before noon yesterday. They had a little trailer behind their car, lots of enthusiasm, and a bunch of tools.
So we all went to work. Chris, Gary, and I grabbed screwdrivers, wrenches, hammers, drills, crowbars, and cold chisels and commenced reducing the greenhouse to its constituent parts. Debbie and Hailey helped carry things over to the trailer, and Debbie made us some hot chocolate when we got cold. There were the usual challenges: reluctant screws, broken parts, nails that had be pulled, etc. At one point a piece fell on Debbie's arm (painful, but no major damage). Chris got a bunch of burrs on her pants at one point. The electrical bits didn't want to come off. On several occasions, Gary and I needed to apply a healthy dose of brute force, aided by crowbars and cold chisels, to get it apart.
But in about four hours we had that greenhouse completely torn to bits. All the parts made of metal or plastic were in good shape. Anything made of wood was pretty much shot. Then we had to somehow fit all that stuff into their little trailer. Gary supervised the packing, and in short order had everything almost packed in. One wooden piece stuck out the back about 2", so he tied the door on the trailer shut as much as it would go, and declared victory. They drove off (literally) into the sunset with their new greenhouse. We're now left with a completely exposed pile of junk where the greenhouse used to be. That will be a project for another day :)
Last year we decided that we'd like to have a greenhouse ourselves – but we wanted one made of glass, not plastic. And we wanted it placed in a slightly more sensible location. We have the perfect spot for a greenhouse, on the south side of the acre or so that we're going to put a garden. That spot has a 12 acre field to the south of it, so the greenhouse will get plenty of sunshine in the winter, when it needs it. That's a project for later this year, or (more likely) next year.
Meanwhile, we had this plastic greenhouse that we wanted to get rid of. We've been trying to find someone who could make good use of it, asking around the network of people we know here. Yesterday those efforts finally paid off when the co-worker (Chris W.) of the son of fellow who built our barn called me out of the blue and said “I’ll take it!” She, her husband Gary, and their daughter Hailey showed up just before noon yesterday. They had a little trailer behind their car, lots of enthusiasm, and a bunch of tools.
So we all went to work. Chris, Gary, and I grabbed screwdrivers, wrenches, hammers, drills, crowbars, and cold chisels and commenced reducing the greenhouse to its constituent parts. Debbie and Hailey helped carry things over to the trailer, and Debbie made us some hot chocolate when we got cold. There were the usual challenges: reluctant screws, broken parts, nails that had be pulled, etc. At one point a piece fell on Debbie's arm (painful, but no major damage). Chris got a bunch of burrs on her pants at one point. The electrical bits didn't want to come off. On several occasions, Gary and I needed to apply a healthy dose of brute force, aided by crowbars and cold chisels, to get it apart.
But in about four hours we had that greenhouse completely torn to bits. All the parts made of metal or plastic were in good shape. Anything made of wood was pretty much shot. Then we had to somehow fit all that stuff into their little trailer. Gary supervised the packing, and in short order had everything almost packed in. One wooden piece stuck out the back about 2", so he tied the door on the trailer shut as much as it would go, and declared victory. They drove off (literally) into the sunset with their new greenhouse. We're now left with a completely exposed pile of junk where the greenhouse used to be. That will be a project for another day :)
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